Vincenzo — Episode 17 Recap
Let them eat cake. Or if the cake is a bomb, let them eat paper.
By the numbers
“Bombs”: 3
Actual bombs: 1
Deaths, this episode: 2, probably.
Injuries, this episode: 1, excluding gastrointestinal paper cuts.
Previous: Vincenzo — Episode 16 Recap
Next: Vincenzo — Episode 18 Recap
Recap
Vincenzo crashes Babel’s victory party, armed and bloodthirsty. Each person cowers as he sets his sights on them, but luckily — or perhaps, unluckily — for them, he isn’t killing anyone today. Quick deaths are an act of mercy, remember? But he does use his gun to give Han-seok a new ear piercing. This is what passes for fun when one kills a consigliere’s mom.
Still in his bloodied suit, Vincenzo returns to the hospital and finally lets his tears loose at his eomma’s side. After the funeral, Vincenzo receives the scarf his mother had given Cha-young. She’d made it for him, and he collapses into tears all over again as he reads her note full of love and regret. Vincenzo’s past haunts him in his dreams, as usual, but now his mother is there, too.
The next morning, Vincenzo is greeted by the Geumga Gang on his way out. They’ve temporarily closed their businesses to lend him their support. He returns a tearful embrace from Hee-soo but leaves without a word.
Han-seok is inflamed by his cosmetic mishap and insists on attending the latest Babel Tower auction. Also attending: The Geumga Gang, who get a Cassano Family makeover courtesy of Vincenzo’s black card. In the hotel ballroom, Han-seo doles out Babel Tower floors in Oprah-esque fashion, while the Geumga Cassanos take over security detail outside.
SenCha are keeping watch in a suite upstairs, and Vincenzo tells his two Choi lackeys they are free to leave the country after one last assignment: one of them, Hwang-gyu, has to wear a “fake” explosive device on his torso and convince the attendees it’s real. He enters the ballroom, alarming Attorney Choi, who instantly recognizes him. He flashes the bomb strapped to his body and rips a cake apart, revealing another bomb.
Unfortunately, no one is buying it, so Vincenzo blows up Hwang-gyu instead.
Back in the suite, Cha-young is so startled she becomes physically disoriented. After a moment, she regains her poise. No, she hasn’t changed her mind about avenging her father’s death.
From a remote part of the hotel, Miri sends all the VIPs in the room a series of texts. Everyone needs to destroy their Babel Tower agreements or the cake bomb will go off, too. The VIPs beg for their lives as they are captured on video literally eating their contracts. The cake eventually explodes — but it’s just a fountain of juice.
It turns out that 1) Han-seo is still interning for Team Jipuragi and was instrumental in sabotaging the Babel Tower auction, and 2) hockey is Vincenzo’s hidden talent. Vincenzo is anticipating major power shifts at Babel, and Han-seo is to keep an eye out. Meanwhile, the Geumga Gang are dispatched to the various VIPs that attended the party to make additional demands.
Later, the Brothers Jang learn that the approval notice for Babel Tower is being re-examined. Donning his obedient younger brother mask, Han-seo makes a fuss over the legalities, but Han-seok has other plans for him. He wants Han-seo to launch a new subsidiary. Babel Bio; if he is successful, he can have Babel Chemicals or Pharmaceutical, too.
Attorney Han has his own moves to make in this chess game. He scores a meeting with leading presidential candidate Park Seung-jun via an old colleague and “kingmaker.” At Jipuragi, Mr. Nam learns that Candidate Park’s brother-in-law is the head of an organization implicated numerous times in the Guillotine file. So naturally, Candidate Park is willing to work with Attorney Han to get it back.
Vincenzo hasn’t forgotten about the gold bars buried under the plaza and tries his hand again at urging the monks to move. They remain steadfast, but Monk Jeokha asks a question that has Vincenzo leaving the temple with a smile.
In damage control mode, Team Babel invites a group of VVIPs over for dinner, reassurances, and more bribes. Unbeknownst to them, Agent Tae from the intelligence agency is actually attending on Vincenzo’s behalf. And he’s recording the party from a camera hidden in his watch. Dun dun dun!
Flashback: Vincenzo had let Agent Ahn in on the Guillotine file a while ago, but convinced him to let him borrow it for a while. Agent Tae, elated to hear of its recovery, emphatically joined Team Jipuragi. In addition to spying on Babel, he’d deflected Kingmaker’s inquiry on Vincenzo by implicating him in an international scandal — exposing him would be a threat to Korea’s national security.
In the present, Agent Tae shares footage of the VVIP dinner and Cho, hiding in the loft, reunites with his intelligence colleagues.
The Kingmaker meets with Team Babel after the VVIP party. He announces that Han will become Chief Prosecutor, and advises them that Vincenzo is way out of their league. Han-seok is none too pleased with all this, but Kingmaker puts him in his place. Perhaps he should take a break and let Han-seo run things again to ensure a smooth transition with the new president?
Han-Han celebrate but, for Han-seo, the revelry is short-lived. Attorney Han has arranged for Interpol to arrest Vincenzo within 24 hours. With him out of the way, they can demolish Geumga Plaza and retrieve the Guillotine file themselves. Victory is within reach, but Han-seo finds himself at a crossroads, again.
Team Jipuragi see the news about now-Chief Prosecutor Han and wonder whether Han-seo has flipped sides. Right on cue, Han-seo calls Vincenzo for an urgent meeting. At the ice rink, Han-seo makes small talk before brandishing a gun — but, seemingly expecting this betrayal, Vincenzo already has his own gun drawn.
Armed Interpol agents arrive and Vincenzo is shot. He collapses, a single tear rolling down his face, blood pooling on the ice around him.
Comments
Vincenzo is not one for idle chit chat so this ending could have a twist akin to episodes 11 and 12. Based on the angles at which Han-seo and Vincenzo are positioned, it’s unlikely Han-seo is the real shooter. More on this, next recap.
The opening of this episode makes it abundantly clear Team Babel doesn’t walk the walk. Face-to-face with their nemesis, they become spineless, helpless insects:
But once out of sight, Han-seok will emphatically demand that 200 men be hired to kill Vincenzo, all to avenge his mangled ear lobe. After the VVIP dinner party, even Han-seo and Attorney Choi look bored of pandering to Han-seok all day.
Ironically, it’s the one who appears weakest that makes the biggest moves. Attorney Han is the only one to come this close to eliminating Vincenzo. He let everyone else exhaust their options and make themselves dispensable before making his own moves; he works smart, not hard. Too bad the only real strategist on Team Babel was overlooked while everyone else was busy trying to become top dog. They really could’ve been… something.
Grieving Vincenzo is a lot like regular mafia Vincenzo, but turned up a notch. Or ten. Cha-young has always known what he is capable of, in theory. But when he brutally blows up Hwang-gyu at the Babel auction without warning, she finally realizes the true level at which he operates. It’s her first time watching him actually kill a person, and her comment about Vincenzo being trapped in a mural or faded newspaper must be coming back to her.
However, she’s come too far in her journey to avenging her father’s death. When she volunteers to take charge of the next phase of Babel attacks, she reasserts her commitment; she’ll see it through, for better or worse. At least she and Attorney Choi have that in common.
The Cassano Family v2.0 are in full effect. Last episode they celebrated a new life together, and this week they are mourning a loss together. With only three episodes left, can Vincenzo really leave South Korea and his new family behind now?
